Week 12 Mechanical Design, Machine Design

Group assignment

Week 12 Chaihuo group assignment.

For Chaihuo, we are going to make a vending machine for XIAO boards, to make it easier for every maker to get them from a local makerspace and Fab Lab.

In the teamwork, I was involved in the discussion on idea generation and structure design.

Individual assignment

Brainstorm

Brainstorm: what kind of vending machine do we want to make?

We started by brainstorming what kind of machine would be useful in a makerspace context. The idea of a vending machine for XIAO boards came up quickly — it solves a real problem: making XIAO boards more available and convenient for makers on demand, without staffing a counter.

The team's initial brainstorming session. We outlined the system flow: user authentication, payment, inventory monitoring, and product dispensing.

From the brainstorm, we converged on a set of core requirements for the machine:

Requirement	Description
Easy to use (易用)	Simple tap-and-go interaction via RFID card
Affordable (便宜)	Low-cost components, reuse of makerspace materials
Durable (耐用)	Robust mechanical structure for repeated use
Compact (体积小)	Small footprint suitable for a desk or counter
Eye-catching (醒目)	Transparent acrylic case to showcase the products inside

The machine would support both in-store and remote purchasing (via an agent system), with inventory monitoring and a digital payment flow.

Structure design

We drafted a rough idea of this device.

There are 2 layers. The upper layer stores XIAO boards, with different tubes for different XIAO models.

It should be transparent, so users can check the stock and the XIAO models.

When the servo works, the plate sweeps the XIAO board to the opening and it falls down.

The bottom layer is mainly for picking up the XIAO board and arranging the payment terminal.

For the group work, we designed the vending machine with one tube to hold the XIAO board. To make the upper layer transparent, we used aluminum sticks as the structure.

For the bottom parts, we considered using 3D printing because the structure is more complicated. It was split into 2 parts: the tube for the XIAO board and the base of the top layer.